Female Prisoner Scorpion: The Complete Collection

[EddieLarkin]

And Arrow's official statement, which states that Toei simply supplied the film elements and that Arrow themselves did all of the scanning and grading at Pinewood.

"With these restorations, we have aimed to present the films as close to their intended original style and appearance as possible."

[Orlac]

I suspect someone at Toei slapped a tint on the video transfers.

But this goes against David M.'s explanation.

Yes, but he's not going to say "Toei messed em up"

[Calvin]

I suspect someone at Toei slapped a tint on the video transfers.

But this goes against David M.'s explanation.

Yes, but he's not going to say "Toei messed em up"

Arrow weren't handed "video transfers", they were given low-con prints to work with.

Which isn't to say that Toei couldn't have messed them up somehow. Or they could have found new evidence for this grading since they last created a transfer. I'm not aware as to whether or not Toei have been guilty of revisionist colour gradings before?

[dwk]

Modo Digital with the first review of this mess

[Telstar]

Wish I'd held on to my dvds.

[Paul Moran]

I'm glad I didn't pre-order this one. I'll wait for a sale. I still have my Eureka DVD Trilogy, which doesn't include Grudge Song.

[TheRanchHand]

Not sure what makes this a mess for everyone but I'm looking forward to it. Each of the prior Arrow Japanese releases have been great and this looks to be just as good. Still getting through Nikkatsu #2.

[tenia]

I'll try and have some fun this evening by specifically cherry-pick shots from the 1st movie which are very natural-looking (though sometimes a tad cold) and do screencaps of them.

[tenia]

Here are some caps from the 1st movie :

SpoilerShow

[TheRanchHand]

Thanks for posting those. I'm really excited to get them shipped out as I have only seen number 1.

[tenia]

Here are some screenshots from the 2nd movie which don't show the heavy blue tint or are able to display some other primaries (red, often) despite the heavy cast.

The 2nd movie actually isn't concerned in a more intense way, like the blue cast is more intense, but it seems to me the number of blue sequences is higher than in the 1st movie. I can't say for sure because I haven't counted them but it seems so. However, it remains very similar in how they appear and seems again to be a sequence-by-sequence basis. One difference with the 1st movie is that the 2nd movie seems to me to have more blue-tinted shots with other primaries retained. The other, which can be seen in the screenshots below, is that many of these still show a rather cold-blueish aspect anyway.

SpoilerShow

For the 1st movie, basically, every "crazy" sequence is like depicted in many of the screenshots posted here or on Rockshockpop. It is very cold, with a heavy blue bias.

Except... that many other sequences have a relatively natural color palette. The opening sequence for instance is rather normal looking, while the opening credits have all the background shots very blue (but the credits themselves seem rather pure red).

There are many discussion sequences in jail between the inmates that also have a regular-looking aspect. Some of them are certainly a tad cold, but I doubt a lot of people would find them problematic.

What is also interesting is that heavily-blue sequences still retain some non-blue elements. During the shower sequence, after Nami smashed the door, the sequence goes clearly voluntarily from a normal color scheme to a heavily stylised blue one, but when Nami goes under the roof lamps, the bulb lights her in a regular-looking light, and her white shirt retains its white strips despite everything else in the frame being very blue, which would tend to say that it's really blue on purpose, as if some blue spots were used to light the place up.

[R0lf]

[Telstar]

Just finished watching the first three films of this set and am really kicking myself for getting rid of my dvds. These new transfers are truly sickening.

[TheRanchHand]

Beaver seems to like the images. I'm happy with what I see and not sure how to reconcile "truly sickening" with "Very strongly recommended! One of the most appealing sets of the year." If these are sickening then I imagine the old DVDs have to be "vomit inducing"

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-ray_ ... lu-ray.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Telstar]

Beaver seems to like the images. I'm happy with what I see and not sure how to reconcile "truly sickening" with "Very strongly recommended! One of the most appealing sets of the year." If these are sickening then I imagine the old DVDs have to be "vomit inducing"

Well, the old DVDs are generally pretty dull and muddy, as many DVDs tend to be, but I'll still take them over these new transfers. Arrow's Female Prisoner transfers clearly supply the better, sharper detail that we expect from HD but the color scheme is frequently so glaringly wrong that it's hard to stomach. These are films with stylistic nuance to burn, which is a huge part of their appeal, and much of that nuance simply gets lost in that omnipresent teal wash that flattens everything out into some sort of monotone aesthetic.
For me at least, this makes these films a whole lot less fun to watch.

[subliminac]

I think the DVDs are fine (at least for the first three films, can't vouch for the last one as I haven't watched it yet). Yes there are compression issues, and yes the presentation in terms of menus and such is rather comically low-fi, but the color looks consistent with films of this era. I should add that I viewed these DVDs on a projector, which generally highlights the limitations of the format. Too bad the transfers weren't of the same quality of the Stray Cat Rock set. It would have been one of the best Blu-ray releases of the year. Right now I'm hoping Arrow releases a stand alone of the first film, as that's the only transfer that seems moderately acceptable to me.

[kekid]

Any response from Arrow about the divergence of opinions on the picture quality (specifically color)?

[MichaelB]

Any response from Arrow about the divergence of opinions on the picture quality (specifically color)?

Ages ago, and posted in this very thread.

[What A Disgrace]

I trust the "this is how the movies are supposed to look" explanation that Arrow offered.

[subliminac]

I trust the "this is how the movies are supposed to look" explanation that Arrow offered.

Seriously? Have you taken a look at the screen caps on the blu-ray.com forum thread for this set? If not I highly recommend it as there are extensive comparisons between prior DVD releases and the new remaster. To me there is clearly something off, especially when it comes to the final three films in the series.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php ... 12&page=21" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I trust Arrow's explanation, as in this is what they were given to work with and there was nothing they could do, but to think this is how the films were intended to look upon their original release seems completely wrong to me.

[Telstar]

I generally admire what Arrow does very much and want to give their Female Convict set every benefit of the doubt, but these transfers are flat-out wrong; when the nature and quality of the materials supplied by Toei were first identified they should have been rejected.
Since I'm apparently a glutton for punishment (or maybe just triple-checking to make sure I'm not crazy), I watched Jailhouse 41 (my favorite film of the series) back-to-back this morning on BD and then on dvd and found the dvd, even with its notably reduced sharpness, offered a richer and ultimately more satisfying experience, grittier, wilder and more eccentric in its changing moods. The new blu-ray, on the other hand, was more of a one-note experience. To each his/her own, obviously, but I love these films and can't imagine revisiting them on blu-ray very often.

[swo17]

when the nature and quality of the materials supplied by Toei were first identified they should have been rejected.

What makes you think that was an option?

[domino harvey]

Have the villainous traitors at Arrow been overthrown and brought up on war crime charges yet? Long live the ICE-Ts (Internet Color Expert Timers), death to the infidelities!

[tenia]

There have been a few cases where the materials supplied were able to be rejected and indeed, it seems these seems to have gain from this.

[R0lf]

Well since this:

Having just taken delivery of the masters, I'm very happy to confirm that this is indeed the case.

Was posted weeks after the set was announced in the future Arrow might want to consider checking their materials before announcing the release.